Request: Sell This One to Me

[W E Ray]

I'm not sold on this one.

River Kingdoms seem kind of vanilla; the Kingmaker AP really was enough for me for this setting. Sarcoris Scar seems so much less interesting than The Worldwound does; I'd rather still have The Worldwound. Occult has to be done really well to really stick. I dunno. At least it's only a three-volume so it's not a massive commitment.

But as it stands I'm thinking about not getting the first two volumes and just getting the third because it's James Jacobs and sounds a little better.

So sell the idea to me.

What are you anxiously looking forward to from this one?

What's going to be awesome about this one?
What's in it that is exciting and brilliant and exotic?
What's going to be novel and feel fresh?

[James Jacobs]

I'm wary about spoiling too much for this one, but I can confirm that it only spends about 1/3 of the first adventure in the River Kingdoms before going to...

Spoiler:

... other nations, other continents, other worlds, and other planes.

It's also one that leans into some of the themes from Dark Archive, particularly...

Spoiler:

... the section on Deviant Abilities.

One of the primary inspirations for the whole Adventure Path that Patrick drew upon when he was creating the outline for it was...

Spoiler:

... The X-Files,

...and while I can't speak to the adventures the other J's wrote, for the third part, my own inspirations for the last adventure come from...

Spoiler:

... Lovecraft's "At the Mountains of Madness," John Carpenter's "The Thing," a wide range of "mad scientist" movies and stories, a range of body horror movies and stories, the real-life stories of antarctic expedition struggles, a dose of yeti lore, and of course "The X-Files." And also building upon a story foundation set into motion by Michael Sayre, who was an enormous help in getting several plot threads in the whole Adventure Path up and running.

And to answer your last three questions with a bit more spoiler power:

What's going to be awesome about this one?

Spoiler:

Getting to play characters who have weird powers and untangling a mysterious alien conspiracy that your PCs may or may not have been involved in.

What's in it that is exciting and brilliant and exotic?

Spoiler:

Getting to go to some places we've visited before, but in new ways and to see new areas

What's going to be novel and feel fresh?

Spoiler:

As as you explore, your PCs will be discovering some mysteries we've teased about Brevoy and the Crown of the World and a few other locations not even on Golarion for a long time. And a LOT of what you're doing as low level characters is going to feel like you're in over your head, plot-wise—this adventure path could have worked very well as an 11th to 20th level adventure I think, but hopefully the way we've handled it for a 1st to 10th level one will work just as well while also being more approachable for folks.

And FINALLY... I'll spoil two locations that are featured in each part of the adventure—I don't feel like these are HUGE spoilers because this info's already on the product pages... but if you want to see more about...

Spoiler:

The First World and Castrovel

then you'll enjoy the 1st adventure.

Spoiler:

Brevoy and Sarkoris

then you'll enjoy the 2nd adventure.

Spoiler:

northwest Ustalav and the Crown of the World

then you'll enjoy the 3rd adventure.

[keftiu]

I appreciate the reply, James - the product pages teased some alien spookiness and some exciting locales, but this really helps it all hang together.

[Rysky]

I didn’t really have an opinion for this AP before, but with these little teasers I’m getting hyped :3

[willfromamerica]

I was already excited for this one, and now I am still excited!

[Captain collateral damage]

Can I ask how Lovecraftian/cosmic horror the AP is? There is a lot of things that are very interesting to me about this AP, but I'm personally not really a fan of horror in general and cosmic horror in particular, so I think I'd be less interested if that was at the center of the story.

[Curaigh]

Captain collateral damage wrote:

Can I ask how Lovecraftian/cosmic horror the AP is? There is a lot of things that are very interesting to me about this AP, but I'm personally not really a fan of horror in general and cosmic horror in particular, so I think I'd be less interested if that was at the center of the story.

Personally I am more interested in the X-men than the X-files aspects. :)

I have only read the first book, but it can be played without the horror aspect. From what I have read of the other two books, the second will lean into it most heavily (book 3 per James' spoilers above). Too much to avoid? I don't know yet and will only be reading them if our table want to do Gatewalkers next.

[James Jacobs]

Of the three books, the third one is the deepest dive into cosmic horror.

[Yakman]

x-men fight cthulhu